We’ve been meaning to make some noise again… and here we are: yeah, we’re back, and we’re working for you — metalheads and beautiful ladies alike.
To crank things up, we revisited ‘Soulless Stone’ with a brand new version of the track originally featured on our third album “Remission Of Sin”. The spark? A full Rocky saga marathon. That’s when it hit us: this song has everything it takes to land on the soundtrack of a brand new Sly movie.
We’re officially in Hollywood mode. Sly, if you’re out there… give us a sign!!
That’s not all: we’ve also recorded our classic Metal Medley, a blast of pure metal energy that used to set our live shows on fire. It includes Metal God by Judas Priest, Metal Daze by Manowar, and Metal Heart by Accept — a true anthem for real metalheads.
We’d also like to say goodbye to Davide Carraro (who played the guitar solos on this release) and thank him for two years of great music, professionalism, and brotherhood.
At the same time, we welcome Albert Marshall to the lineup — you’ll see him live on June 5th at the SuperMetalFest in Vicenza.
And there’s more: writing for our fifth album is now complete. We’ll hit the studio this summer for the official recordings.
In 2024, acclaimed instrumental post-rock band IF THESE TREES COULD TALK released a single, “Trail Of Whispering Giants,” the group’s first new music in eight years. Fans clamored for more. The wait is over with The Hidden Hand, a full album of nine stellar, provocative songs set for release on July 10th through Metal Blade Records.
As drummer and band-co-founder Zack Kelly explains, “The IF THESE TREES COULD TALK experience feels like a slow, wordless conversation between the inner and outer world best consumed like the score to a cinematic picture or a space for meditation, healing, and clarity.“
“This release means a lot to me not only spiritually but emotionally,” Kelly, who co-founded the band with drummer-brother Cody Kelly in 2005, continues. “There were a lot of up-and-downs during the making of this album and the journey took longer than anticipated, but the end goal is to make music that holds an emotional imprint, and I hope we have succeeded.”
The Hidden Hand offers the same range of dark and ambient landscapes as the band’s previous offerings but also brings a feeling of resolution. “As we all get older and our musical tastes evolve, it’s more of a challenge to keep the sound of the band in a specific lane and not venture too far away from where we originally started.”
IF THESE TREES COULD TALK focuses on capturing sonic power, utilizing the three guitars to cover different areas of the spectrum. Kelly elaborates, “It’s almost the same way an orchestra would be set up with the bass guitar covering cello, the rhythm guitars holding down the woodwind section and the lead guitarist covering the strings section. No matter who comes up with a riff or where it starts, the end product must always have these three components present especially when transitioning from clean to heavy tones.”
Longtime fans and newcomers alike will thrill to the album’s stunning first single, “Blurry Creatures.” Kelly notes, “The track embodies the raw nature of the IF THESE TREES COULD TALK sound by incorporating unrelenting riffs with epic highs and lows, ambient syncopated delays and a battle chant that stimulates the senses.“
Watch the band’s entrancing visualizer for “Blurry Creatures“:
Before unleashing the bats live in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and GermanyCEMETERY SKYLINE are releasing a deluxe edition of their highly successful debut album. “Nordic Gothic (Deluxe Edition)” comes with a full bonus disc with unreleased and rare songs and versions that were compiled since the original release of the album: Four additional studio songs, the (so far) one of a kind semi acoustic session that the band played in New York City as well as remixes. With CEMETERY SKYLINE drawing influences from late 80s and 90s goth metal and rock they were curious what new artists from the vital dark electronic scene could bring to their music: The French multi-instrumentalist Kabbel, who is mixing the darkness of extreme music and industrial with a modern pop influence, did a melancholic version of “In Darkness” lit by dimmed neon lights. The U.S. duo ghostbells not only added their signature dark new wave–meets–EBM twist to “Torn Away”, but also haunting female vocals, bringing even deeper shades of black and purple. Synthwave pioneer Gost created an 80s infused, yet digital nightmarish version of “Violent Storm”. On top the music is accompanied by a booklet with behind the scenes and live photos from their first gatherings as a band.
Markus Vanhala comments: “We’ve been having so much fun in this misery called ‘Nordic Gothic’ that we just decided to release it again! As you notice, we recorded some more songs during the original sessions, so here’s the full ‘Nordic Gothic’ saga shining in the dark. Unreleased material, the standalone single releases, NYC acoustic live tracks that show a different side of the songs as well as something completely different: the remixes by outside artists! This should be a pretty cool deluxe edition with a disc full of unreleased material. N-joy!”
The track listing of “Nordic Gothic (Deluxe Edition)” reads as follows:
Come May 6th they will embark on a run of dates in Finland with support coming from Sweden’s finest gothic metal changelings TRIBULATION. Afterwards they are heading to Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland for a short tour that is supported by ROYAL SORROW.
Fellow bats shouldn’t miss the chance to be engulfed by “Nordic Gothic” on the following shows:
John Smith & Kaaoszine present:
CEMETERY SKYLINE with Special Guests TRIBULATION 06.05. Turku – Logomo 07.05. Tampere – Tavara-Asema 08.05. Kuopio – Sawohouse 09.05. Oulu – Tullisali 10.05. Helsinki – Tavastia
CEMETERY SKYLINE support ROYAL SORROW 12.05. Stockholm – Debaser 13.05. Gothenburg – Pustervik 14.05. Copenhagen – Beta 15.05. Hamburg – Bahnhof Pauli 16.05. Berlin – Hole44 17.05. Lucerne – Konzerthaus Schüür 18.05. München – Backstage 20.05. Stuttgart – Im Wizemann 21.05. Frankfurt – Das Bett 22.05. Essen – Turock
Japan dates: 13.09. (JP) Osaka – Varon 14.09. (JP) Tokyo – Space Odd
The album “Nordic Gothic” was released to much acclaim last year. Revisit all their videos released so far:
Cemetery Skyline is: Vocals: Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquillity, The Halo Effect, Grand Cadaver) Guitars: Markus Vanhala (Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum, I Am The Night) Keyboards: Santeri Kallio (Amorphis) Bass: Victor Brandt (Dimmu Borgir, Witchery, ex-Entombed/Entombed A.D., Firespawn and many more) Drums: Vesa Ranta (Sentenced, The Abbey)
Following a highly successful headline tour across Germany and Europe in February and March 2026, Heaven Shall Burn return to their roots this summer – back to the places where their shows have always been at their most intense: the clubs.
Hailing from Thüringen, the band once again proved with their latest release why they remain one of the most influential forces in the international metal scene. Their recent tour was nearly completely sold out and celebrated by both fans and critics alike.
But those who truly know Heaven Shall Burn understand: the band’s magic doesn’t just unfold on big stages – it thrives in small, sweaty venues where energy, closeness and raw emotion collide. With the “Heimat Over Europe Clubtour 2026”, the band brings exactly that experience back.
Across just six exclusive shows, fans will get the rare chance to experience the band’s overwhelming live energy up close. Anyone who has witnessed these moments before knows how powerful and unforgettable they are.
Fans can also look forward to a strong lineup of support acts: Sanguisugabogg bring their crushing, groove-heavy take on modern death metal, while 200 Stab Wounds have quickly risen as one of the most exciting acts in the new wave of old-school-inspired death metal.
Tickets are on sale now, exclusively via the Endzeit merchandise store at www.endzeit.shop. As in the past, demand will be high – these intimate club shows are expected to sell out quickly.
This tour is deliberately limited: six nights, six clubs, maximum intensity. Don’t miss the chance to experience the band in its most powerful form.
Sicilian thrashers XENOS A.D. have announced some of the European dates they will be holding in 2026 in support of their latest album “Reqviem for the Oppressor”:
May 9, 2026: Vast Plains And Goats Fest (Craiova, Romania);
May 15, 2026: Hell ‘n’ Fire Fest (Garage Club, Cracow, Poland);
May 16, 2026: Hell ‘n’ Fire Fest 2nd day (Leśniczówka Rock and Roll Cafe, Poland);
June 12, 2026: TBA
July 29, 2026: TBA
August 30, 2026: Hellhammer Fest (Pancevo, Serbia);
November 13, 2026: TBA
November 14, 2026: Thrashchester Fest (Manchester, UK).
The band announces that more dates will be added soon.
SOLACE preach heavy metal to the faithful in the new music video ‘Spiral Will‘ for the next advance single taken from their highly anticipated fifth full-length “Fading Failing Ruin“, scheduled for release on July 3, 2026, via Magnetic Eye Records.
The iconic stoner doom act from New Jersey, USA is also about to embark on their European tour that will be kicked off on May 7, 2026 in the French capital city of Paris
SOLACE comment on ‘Spiral Will’: “If our previous album, ‘The Brink’, represented the last thoughts of a drowning man, then ‘Fading Failing Ruin’ is his spirit washing up on shore“, vocalist Justin Goins muses. “This new world is foreign and alien to him, and he’ll soon realize that there’s no bottom to which he can sink. There’s always another depth to descend once he crashes through the bedrock below. The cost of his failures in life is to be fettered to a stone by a chain at his ankle, walking in circles until the chain, winding itself around the stone, pulls him in a spiral to be crushed against the rock. The only way forward is to ascend, and the only way to ascend is to fashion wings – one feather grown from each slight and wound – until he can achieve escape velocity, breaking the chain and rising above his human failings. The freedom of wings, however, can be its own curse, threatening to turn him into a monster by setting him above what he sees as pedestrian concerns beneath him, destroying the humanity that sets him apart from the rest of the world.”
Tracklist
Spiral Will
Fettered to a Stone
A God Changes His Plans
Wrath’s Object (The Big Fall)
Culling the Herd
Beyond Below
Malengine (The Scaffold)
Every Day Is a Loaded Gun
Ridden
SOLACE deliver their fifth studio album “Fading Failing Ruin” just in time to celebrate the anniversary of their 30th year as a band. And all the heaviness, experience, and obvious maturity of their songwriting across three decades is perfectly reflected in the seeming ease with which these master craftsmen hammer out one captivating and crushing track after the other.
Revolving around apocalyptic, infernal, and end time themes that easily fit this day and age, “Fading Failing Ruin” nails the current global mood by taking a strong dose of inspiration from the earliest days of metal and blending it with contemporary heaviness.
A direct link goes back to 1996, when SOLACE rose from the ashes of GODSPEED, who made their name on Headbanger’s Ball and Beavis & Butthead, appeared on the “Nativity in Black” tribute backing Bruce Dickinson, and toured with CATHEDRAL and BLACK SABBATH. Emerging at the dawn of the internet and the burgeoning stoner rock scene, SOLACE were driven by hardcore-infused metal, captivating vocals, and a dark doom underbelly.
The New Jersey band hit the scene with their ferocious debut “Further” in 2000. Its tracks remain as contemporary and relevant as in those early days, and an extended and re-mastered 25th anniversary edition became an unplanned but much deserved tribute to brilliant yet tortured original SOLACE vocalist Jason L., who had sadly passed away in January 2025.
SOLACE continued to build on a solid foundation of classic metal, early doom, and punk ethic into which the four-piece infused a healthy dose of hardcore fury and groovy, grinding sludge.
Three years after the worldwide success of “Further”, SOLACE returned with the sophomore album “13” (2003), which highlighted the epic side of their songwriting. In the wake of this album, the band was invited twice to perform at the prestigious Roadburn Festival in 2006 and 2009.
The shoremen returned with their highly praised third album “A.D.” in 2010. Despite the band’s growing acclaim, SOLACE took an informal hiatus to revamp their lineup, returning even stronger with full-length number four, “The Brink”, in 2019.
SOLACE have called their amalgamation of doom and heavy metal with hardcore elements dirt metal, while elsewhere it has been somewhat tongue-in-cheekily dubbed shorecore. Others file the New Jersey five-piece under stoner metal – and in truth, all these descriptions have and still fit the band to an extent.
With “Fading Failing Ruin”, SOLACE erect a new milestone of US heavy metal that respects traditions from both sides of the Atlantic while churning toward a chaotic future. Time to bang those heads!
SOLACE “Fading Failing Ruin” European Tour Dates 2026 07 MAY 2026 Paris (FR) La Maroquinerie (Supporting Hermano) 08 MAY 2026 Utrecht (NL) Tivoli (Supporting Hermano) 09 MAY 2026 Köln (DE) Luxor (Supporting Hermano) 10 MAY 2026 Dresden (DE) Chemiefabrik 11 MAY 2026 Wien (AT) Arena (Supporting Hermano) 12 MAY 2026 München (DE) Backstage (Supporting Hermano) 13 MAY 2026 Berlin (DE) Desertfest Berlin Warm-Up 15 MAY 2026 London (UK) Desertfest London 16 MAY 2026 Bridgewater (UK) Cobblestones 17 MAY 2026 Bristol (UK) The Gryphon 18 MAY 2026 Bournemouth (UK) Bear Cave 20 MAY 2026 Hildesheim (DE) Club VEB 21 MAY 2026 Göttingen (DE) Vinyl-Reservat 22 MAY 2026 Hamburg (DE) Stellwerk
SOLACE US Live Dates 2026 06 JUN 2026 Atlantic City, NJ (US) Anchor Rock Club 19 SEP 2026 Austin, TX (US) Ripplefest Texas 10 OCT 2026 Youngstown, OH (US) Emissions from the Monolith
Line-up Justin Skyler Daniels – guitar Justin Goins – keyboard, vocals Tim Schoenleber – drums Mike Sica – bass Tommy Southard – guitar
Guest musicians Pelle Andersson (LOWRIDER) – various keyboards Eric Rachel – additional keyboards Duane Hutter – slide guitar
Recording by Eric Rachel at Bulletproof Music Studio, Hazlet, NJ (US) & The Pussycat Club, Milford, NJ (US) Produced by Eric Rachel & Solace Mix & mastering by Eric Rachel at Trax East, South River, NJ (US) Cover art & layout by Paul Vismara
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
